ALCOHOL: ON OCCASION OR IN EXCESS?
Do you drink alcohol? I ask every client this question because it is a very important one. How much, how frequently, and what you are drinking has a major effect on your health, and your weight. Do you know what Alcohol is doing to your body? You know how it makes you feel, but do you know what it’s doing to your organs? Has it taken control of your weight, but you pretend that it hasn’t? Do you justify your drinking habits by saying “I ate good today, or I had a stressful day so I can have a glass of wine to unwind”?
Your drinking habits could be sabotaging your healthy eating habits. If drinking is an occasional thing for you, then it’s probably nothing to worry about. But let’s be honest, your definition of occasional might be 2-3 nights per week. I define occasional as 1-2 times per month or months**.
WHAT IT’S WORTH
Alcohol is 7 calories per gram, and it is 7 calories that serve no nutritional purpose for your body. And I hear you folks out there that are saying, “wine has anti-oxidants in it!” Please save it for someone else. You can get more anti-oxidants from eating whole foods. Alcohol is not nutrition, there’s no biochemical reaction that requires it. Drinking alcohol chronically is toxic. If you would like to take care of your liver and your long-term health, you should ditch the daily and weekly drinks and save it for special occasions only.
EXCESS ALCOHOL IS MAKING YOU FAT, INSIDE AND OUT
Whatever your liver isn’t metabolizing for energy gets stored as fat. Your cocktail is no better than a piece of chocolate cake. So, that glass of wine, or 2 or 4, before bed each night is doing as much damage as a pint of Ben and Jerry’s. Your liver metabolizes sugar and alcohol the same way. That is why so many people today are being diagnosed with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.
Even though they may not have ever been heavy drinkers, they have been heavy sugar-eaters and it does the same damage to your liver. So, knowing this, imagine what is happening when you are drinking alcohol + sugar + processed foods. Toxin, after toxin, after toxin. Your body goes into a full-fledged inflamed state. It’s no wonder you wake up feeling like garbage. Even if you aren’t gaining weight on the outside of your body in the form of adipose tissue, you are storing fat on the inside, specifically your liver, and causing major damage to your body.
STOP DRINKING YOUR CALORIES AND KILLING YOUR LIVER
You only get one liver, you only get one body, and you only get one life. Why waste it by drinking too much alcohol? I am not saying you can never have a glass of wine, a beer, or a margarita. It should just be a once-in-a-while thing, not a daily or weekly thing. It should be something where you have 1 drink, 2 max, not 4 or 5. Would you sit down and smash 5 pieces of birthday cake?
Don’t answer that. In a perfect world where there were no consequences to our actions and donuts were calorie free and guilt free we could sit down and eat a dozen each day. But that is not the world we live in. The world we live in has the very real reality of Covid-19, Type 2 Diabetes, Heart Disease, and Cancer. You don’t have to be a part of these statistics though. You can make a change.
Are you ready to make some changes? Book a free call HERE to chat with me 1-1 for 15 minutes this week.
